Political events in Sacramento are usually laughable, but get a load of the latest misadventure involving Assemblyman Jose Solorio, “Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state legislators welcomed several Central Valley mayors and hundreds of California farm workers to the Capitol steps yesterday. The rally’s focus was to urge legislators to let voters decide on a water bond proposal.”

Farm workers?  Oh sure, that will really motivate the voters to pass another bond and put our state further in debt.  And check out what Solorio, who is a vegetarian, had to say at this staged event, “Did you know it takes 700 gallons of water to make a cheeseburger?”  I suppose if that burger included an entire cow that might be remotely true, but give me a break!  How much water does Solorio waste washing his humongous pompadour everyday?

Chisme has it that Schwarzenegger had to pick Solorio up so he could reach the microphone (see the picture above).  Maybe if Solorio had eaten a few more burgers while growing up he might not have stunted his growth.  And hasn’t anyone warned him that eating too many soybeans can have bad results for men as the soybeans are rich in estrogen, or female hormones?

“Governor Schwarzenegger and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a $9.3 billion bond recently to finance water infrastructure projects and save Delta wildlife. If the Legislature approves, the bond measure will be on the November ballot.”

Even if we DO need to invest in our water infrastructure, it is hard to believe that voters will be willing to sink our state further into debt during the Bush recession.  And it is even harder to believe that anyone thinks Solorio is a good spokesperson for anything.

Wasn’t Solorio on the Santa Ana City Council when the City administration ignored our decaying water and sewer pipelines?  Now he suddenly cares about water infrastructure?

Why in the world is Schwarzenegger wasting his time on this guy?  Doesn’t he know that Solorio is being opposed by a Republican this November?  You can find out more about Solorio’s opponent, Cam Mangels, at this link.   I will definitely be voting for Mangels.  He may not have much of a chance, but at least he doesn’t run around making outlandish claims about using 700 gallons of water to make a burger.

The least popular member of the Santa Ana City Clowncil, “Crazy” Claudia Alvarez, won’t be running unchallenged after all in Santa Ana’s Ward 5.  Two potential candidates have pulled papers to run against her.

Lisann Martinez is a progressive housing advocate who comments quite a bit here at the Orange Juice.  The other candidate is Luis Davila.  I don’t know him.

Martinez appears in the YouTube video above, where she critiques portions of Ward 5 and Ward 3, represented by Clowncilman Carlos “Space Commander” Bustamante, where the sidewalk is not amenable to people with disabilities. Martinez has quite a few videos available on her YouTube channel.

Alvarez put a measure on the ballot this past year, Measure D, which extended the Council Members terms by one additional term, otherwise she would be termed out already.  So the misery continues but perhaps one of her challengers will take her out.  One can only hope.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido may vote for one of those challengers.  I hear that his supporters are livid about Alvarez and want him to cut ties with her.

Alvarez pulled out of the 2007 Supervisorial race in the First District when Tom Umberg announced his campaign.  Umberg previously beat Alvarez for the Democratic nomination for the 69th Assembly District in 2004.  Umberg barely won, by 8,498 votes versus 8,122 votes, according to Smart Voter.  In that race Alvarez famously tanked after she put up signs in Spanish that said “She’s one of us.”  Many of her constituents promptly vomited when they read those signs…and they then voted for Umberg.

I wonder how many local Democrat leaders will choose not to endorse Alvarez?

Pajaritos are reporting that Santa Ana Housing & Redevelopment Commissioner Lynette Verino (pictured above, second from left, next to Councilwoman and Mayoral candidate Michele Martinez) is considering running for the seat on the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Trustees that incumbent Trustee Al Amezcua is vacating in November.

Verino previously ran unsuccessfully for the Santa Ana City Council against Clowncilwoman “Crazy” Claudia Alvarez back in 2004.  Verino came in third in that race, behind Roman Reyna, with 8,656 votes, according to Smart Voter.  Reyna had 10,720 votes.  Alvarez came in first with 26,503 votes. 

Verino also won a seat on the Democratic Party of Orange County’s Central Committee in the recent June primary election.  She came in fifth, behind Tish Leon, with 4,130 votes, in the 69th Assembly District, according to the O.C. Voter Registrar.  The top vote-getter in that race was Zeke Hernandez, with 6,214 votes.

Verino, according to her candidate’s information in her Council race, has an associate’s degree.  She claims to be a businesswoman.  Apparently she previously served on the Santa Ana Planning Commission and she has been a Vice President of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association.

Verino will need to come up with somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000 for the filing fee for the RSCCD seat in question.  Fellow Santa Ana Housing & Redevelopment Commissioner Deborah Vasquez is helping Verino to raise that money.  You can contact Vasquez at this link.

I have not heard of any other possible candidates for Amezcua’s RSCCD seat.

R.E.D.(Real Estate Diversion) Alert. When you need to take a break from politics, give your mind a rest in Real Estate.

My House is Worth What  is a hit real estate show on HGTV that wants to give homeowners tips on how to make the best investments in their home. What we do is evaluate homes that have been remodeled/updated/restored by the current owners, consider the improvements made and the costs paid, and provide feedback on whether or not those changes added value & marketability… Or Not!  We will select a local Realtor to provide the evaluation on camera.

We are looking for approx. 3 homes in Orange County, and we are specifically interested in Floral Park and Downtown Historic Orange.  However, we are open to other homes….

                                                             in the area provided that they meet the following requirements:

-Homeowners must be personable, lively, excited to be on camera
-Must have made changes, improvements, updates to their home
-Must be willing to discuss how much they spent on their home and on these changes and let a Realtor give them a current market value for their home
-They must not plan on putting their house on the market before we shoot (before the end of 2008)
-Ideally, we are looking for homes that have charm, are particular to Orange County, that will show well on TV

Anyone interested should e-mail Holly ASAP at holly_schwartz@pietown.tv.

If you need any other info, please let me know!
Holly

Any Takers?  Hey, this could be the perfect solution to the Twist-Basler House situation!   

The shooter is described as being a male between 16 and 20 years old.

Just where do 16 year old gang members get guns?

According to The City of Santa Ana website, Santa Ana has experienced a 64 percent decrease in crime over the last decade and is at its lowest rate since 1963.

I was not yet born in 1963, but can anyone tell me if there were this many shootings and murders back in 1963?

Al Amezcua is walking away from power.  But why?  Apparently he is not going to run for reelection to the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board - he has withdrawn his campaign filing papers.

He says that he wants new leadership in Santa Ana, which sounds like baloney.  He also has been bragging lately about running for Mayor of Santa Ana in two years.  I guess that is off the table too.

Did this blog hound Al out of office?  You have to wonder.  Politicians like him have enjoyed power for years in Santa Ana without anyone going after them or their misdeeds.  But Al and his fellow Rancho trustees have provided ample fodder for the Orange Juice over the last five years. Here are just a few of the stories that we published about Al and the Rancho board:

• Was this a good time to open the Santa Ana Business Bank?
• Six degrees if Al Amezcua
• Santa Ana officials have no clue that we are in a recession
• It figures - no one gets fired for Santa Ana College fire alarm fiasco
• If you see fire - run to the shower!
• Will heads roll at Santa Ana College after fire alarm fiasco?
• Mike Metzler praises the Santa Ana College officials who ignored their faulty fire alarms
• College trustees get greedy, even as their failures mount
• Rancho Santiago College District lied and blew our tax money

And I blasted the Rancho board when they passed a project labor agreement on the funds acquired from Measure E, their first bond measure.  A trustee later admitted to me that the PLA, which banned non-union contractors from bidding on bond funded projects, backfired - they ended up slowing down projects and paying more to get less.

So why is Al walking away from a seat of power?  Is he going to help his amiga Michele Martinez with her Mayoral campaign, or his daughter Valerie with her SAUSD School Board campaign?  Or is he just worried about all the money he stuck in the Santa Ana Business Bank?  Perhaps our readers may know what is really going on with Al Amezcua.

“Laguna Beach, long a gay-friendly community, followed Los Angeles’ lead as one of the first cities to reject a ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage,” according to the L.A. Times.

What about the City of Santa Ana?  Our City Council is almost majority Democrat.  There is only one Republican on our City Council - lame Clowncilman Carlos Bustamante.  Why hasn’t Mayor Miguel Pulido asked his fellow Clowncil Members to do what Laguna Beach just did?

Could it be that Pulido is staying away from this issue because his buddy Bustamante won’t support it?  And what about Clowncilman David Benavides?  He graduated from Biola University and used to be a minister.  Perhaps Benavides is not too happy about gay marriage?

Why isn’t mayoral candidate Michele Martinez, who is supposed to be a progressive, making a big stink about this?  Shouldn’t she be taking the lead on uniting the Clowncil against Prop. 8?  Doesn’t she believe in allowing gay marriage?

Back to Pulido - how does he expect to garner the endorsement of his party, the DPOC, if he can’t or won’t stand up for gay civil rights?

Kudos to the Laguna Beach City Council.  Too bad the Democrats on the Santa Ana City Clowncil - and their GOP ally Bustamante, can’t get their act together with regard to gay civil rights.

These were visionary words for their time and in the years since they were uttered they have proven themselves true time and again, so much so that they are now conventional wisdom. Why is it then that so many ignore their fundamental truth? Why do people ignore the omnipresent warnings, the constant reminders, and the pleas from their leaders to change their ways? Why has America pawned its problems off to the next generation?

Comparisons between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter have been increasing in recent months. Has anybody really stopped to ask why? It’s not just the single-term predictions for Obama; it may also have something to do with this speech, dubbed the ‘Crisis of Confidence’ speech, that President Carter delivered on July 15, 1979, during what would be the final summer and tail end of his administration:

Good evening. This is a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for president of the United States.

I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past three years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject — energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It’s clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper — deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America…

read the rest of the speech here

Is it just me or is this like collective deja vu all over again?! How did we get out of our energy crisis last time? Reagan took out the artificial supply bottleneck. There’s nothing artificial about our current situation, though. With our demand out of control, our refineries at near-full capacity, and crude oil at record highs, we need real solutions. Ironically, we need to look to the future to correct mistakes of old; we need new technologies, not empty promises and skyrocketing prices, and yet if Obama wants a future term, he simply needs to look back at the mistakes of our 39th President. Or better yet, he can look again to Mr. Churchill (photo above) for advice:

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and indeed many other Democrats would disagree with that statement, instead opting for a cruel to be kind approach. Even Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido thinks that high gas prices are a good thing.

Speaking of technology through the ages, Reuters India reported on Sunday that NASA is exploring the possibility of purchasing unmanned cargo spacecraft from Japan. Japan?! Why? The space shuttle program is slated for retirement in 2010 and we don’t have another way to get cargo into space? Each unit would cost $130 million dollars, or approximately 10% of the budget of the current space shuttle program and carry 6 tons of materials into space.

“In April, NASA started a project to assist U.S. companies’ development of a spacecraft to succeed the space shuttle. However, it is uncertain whether it will be possible for the successor vehicle to be developed in the two years left before the space shuttle is to be scrapped, prompting NASA to discuss buying foreign spacecraft. The U.S. Congress has a psychological resistance to buying Russian spacecraft, and the ATV’s transport capacity is smaller than that of the HTV. NASA, therefore, is considering ordering HTVs.” -Spaceref.com

But hold the phone, the very next day after the announcement of unofficial talks between NASA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency, NASA is denying everything, instead claiming that they intend to rely on ‘commercial resupply,’ which is just a fancy way of saying outsourcing. Some European countries and Russia currently have the ability to transport cargo, so some entity that is not American is going to get our tax dollars. I’m not sure how one option is better than the other, but once again, this is a crisis that could have been forseen. In fact, it was around the time of Jimmy Carter’s speech that our first space shuttle, Columbia, was finally delivered to NASA after 7 years in development after President Nixon ordered plans for a reusable spacecraft in 1972.

But of course, the story doesn’t stop there. We still don’t have a space shuttle replacement yet. Who knows whether or not we’ll be able to construct a feasible manned spacecraft within the 2 years left in the current program? NASA’s main lead on a solution is slated for completion in 2010, but it will be untested, and if the project ends in failure, our next best hope is slated for a 2018 completion.

President Bush promised us Mars. How do we intend to get there? In a ‘79 Chevy Nova at 8mpg? And with NASA at the forefront of inspiring and providing consumer technologies, what will become of future advancements here on the planet Earth?

We’re American. We’re known for ingenuity. We’re known for technology. We’re known for setting the standard and a creative, pragmatic spirit. And yet we follow in the fields that we pioneered. Welcome to the new space race. It’s with ourselves.

SMS

For those who have not been following  this story the city of Mission Viejo budgeted between $300,000 and $350,000 for a Rose Parade float to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Having just received a reply to my Public Record request it appears that the city council may have budgeted for, but never approved, any Contract for any firm to build a float for the Jan 1st Rose Parade.

So we have an ad hoc team of Mayor Kelley and Council member MacLean marching down the road with a verbal commitment for the float, front row tickets and reserved parking that have no official approvals?

The Mission Viejo Records Management Coordinator’s email begins with my request  that follow:
1. (Is there a) Contract for the Jan 1, 2009 Rose Parade Float.
3. Does the float Contract contain an escape clause? If so, what is the penalty?

2.  (Have we issued a) Purchase order or verbal commitment for Rose Parade seating and parking.

His reply reads:
Referring to #1 and #3. “In answer to these requests. This contract has not been finalized or approved by the City Council, so there is no contract to provide as yet.”

For #2 he reports that “it is my understanding that there may have been a preliminary verbal commitment for seating and/or parking.”
Wait a minute. Apparently the float Contract is already in some draft form PRIOR TO a council vote? A verbal commitment has been made for seating before the council votes their approval? Is this to be interpreted as a predetermined “slam dunk” and we become rubber stamps for this feel good expenditure?

Let’s see if our hammering this issue on the Orange Juice blog causes them to reconsider this waste of taxpayer money when they consider this item on the August 18th (or any later) Agenda.

OK readers. Now is the time to become part of this exercise. You can now become part of this countywide focus group. At a time when residents are struggling to make ends meet, some losing their homes to foreclosure, retired citizens burning through their savings to keep  up with inflation, etc. should the council majority reject the upcoming Contract. Yes or no please.

I will share  your inputs with the council as they vote this self  promotion up or down.